s tenacity and
elasticity--so for book coverings, to withstand wear and tear, good
leather is indispensable. There are thoroughly-bound books existing which
are five centuries old--representing about the time when leather began to
replace wood and metals for binding. The three great enemies of books are
too great heat, too much moisture, and coal gas, which produces a
sulphurous acid very destructive to bindings, and should never be used in
libraries. From the dangers which destroy calf and Russia leather,
morocco is measurably free.

As to color, I usually choose red for books which come to binding or
rebinding, for these reasons. The bulk of every library is of dark and
sombre color, being composed of the old-fashioned calf bindings, which
grow darker with age, mingled with the cloth bindings of our own day, in
which dark colors predominate. Now the intermixture of red morocco, in
all or most of the newly bound books, relieves the monotony of so much
blackness, lights up the shelves, and gives a more cheerful aspect to the
whole library. Some there are who insist upon varying the colors of
bindings with the subjects of the books--and the British Museum Library
actually once bound all works on botany in green, poetry in yellow,
history in red, and theology in blue; but this is more fanciful than
important. A second reason for preferring red in moroccos is that, being
dyed with cochineal, it holds its color more permanently than any
other--the moroccos not colored red turning to a dingy, disagreeable
brown after forty or fifty years, while the red are found to be fast
colors. This was first discovered in the National Library of France, and
ever since most books in that great collection have been bound in red. A
celebrated binder having recommended this color to a connoisseur who was
having fine morocco binding done, instanced the example of the Paris
Library, whose books, said he, are "mostly red," to which the amateur
replied that he hoped they were.

Add to the merits of morocco leather the fact that it is not easily
scratched nor stained, that it is very tough in wear, and resists better
than any other the moisture and soiling of the hands--and we have a
material worthy of all acceptance.

In half-binding chosen for the great majority of books because it is much
cheaper than full leather, the sides are covered with muslin or with some
kind of colored paper--usually marble. The four corners of every book,
however,